It is important to come to this book knowing what to expect.

Later in the book, we meet Damer’s eventual partner, writer Mary Berry who embodies the delicate negotiations between women who yearn to move their relationship from friendship to something less socially acceptable. (Spoiler: she holds out for marriage and eventually achieves it.) Derby was, for me, the least relatable of the characters but his point of view provides entrance into the men-only realm of politics and sport that the other characters only touch on.

Farren is in an entirely different position, having clawed her way up to the status of famous and respectable actress (at a time when the profession was typically far from respectable) and being faced with whether to maintain that path or to take the semi-honorable retirement position of being the Earl of Derby’s mistress. Damer struggles with achieving recognition as a serious artist in the face of sexism, while relying on the social and financial privilege of her birth to be able to continue that struggle. The Charactersĭonoghue has the knack of showing us characters whose motivations and actions are out of step with our modern day, but showing how they make sense in their own era. Damer’s unlikely friendship with actress Elizabeth Farren, and the peculiar triangle they made with Farren’s long-time (and married) suitor the Earl of Derby provide the lens for Donoghue’s panorama of gender dynamics, political tangles, and social contradictions as her characters and their contemporaries grapple with the upheavals of the French Revolution and its effects on English politics and ideals. Life Mask by Emma Donoghue is a biographical novel that explores late 18th century upper class English history through the life and loves of aristocratic sculptor Anne Damer.

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